Nigerian Pidgin English: 50 phrases with meanings

Nigerian Pidgin, which many Nigerians just call Pidgin and linguists often call Naijá, is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria after English. Estimates run from “over 75 million” speakers to well over 100 million, depending on who is counting and how; Ethnologue’s figures, quoted by Wikipedia, put it at about 4.65 million first-language and 116 million second-language speakers (2020). It is the language of the market, the bus stop and the group chat, and you can get a long way with a few dozen phrases.

Here are fifty, grouped by when you would use them. Spellings vary, because Pidgin has no official written standard: you will see dey and de, comot and komot. Meanings can shift with tone and region too, so treat this as a starting point, not a rulebook.

Greetings and small talk

Questions

Everyday sentences

Reactions

Money and the market

Life and people

Five words that unlock the rest

Most of these phrases are built from a handful of small words. Learn these and you can read the tables above without help:

• dey: is, or is doing. “I dey go” is “I am going”.
• don: has, already. “I don go” is “I have gone” or “I went”.
• go: will. “I go go” is “I will go”.
• no: not. “I no go” is “I am not going” or “I didn’t go”.
• na: it is. “Na you?” is “Is it you?”

For more on how these fit together, read how to speak Nigerian Pidgin: a beginner’s guide.

Where the words come from

Pidgin’s vocabulary is mostly English, but not only. Sabi (know) and pikin (child) are Portuguese, oga, oya, abi, shebi and omo are Yoruba, una is Igbo, and wahala came through Yoruba and Hausa from Arabic. Wetin is English “what thing”, and comot is “come out”. In Lagos, Pidgin borrows especially heavily from Yoruba; in Port Harcourt or Warri you will hear different flavours.

Hear it in AJ Cities

AJ Cities is a free open-world game set on the edge of Ajegunle, Lagos, and its characters speak English with a light touch of Pidgin, so a reader anywhere can follow. A few of the phrases above come straight from the story. When AJ turns up on June 12 Street after London, Chuks looks up from his coal pot: “AJ! Na you?” A minute later: “Forget them. You’re home now. Sit down small, the rice is almost done.” Natasha wants no wahala on her floor, and Benny knows exactly what an accent costs in a Lagos market. Read it in AJ’s story, or play it.

How do you say hello in Nigerian Pidgin?

“How far?” is the everyday informal greeting, and “How you dey?” means “How are you?”. The usual reply is “I dey”, I’m fine.

How do you say “I don’t know” in Pidgin?

“I no sabi.” Sabi, from the Portuguese “saber”, means to know.

What does “I never chop” mean?

I haven’t eaten yet. In Pidgin “never” often means “not yet”, not “never in my life”.

Is Nigerian Pidgin the same as broken English?

No. Many Nigerians call it “Broken”, but it is a language of its own with its own grammar, and speakers treat it as separate from standard Nigerian English.